Richwine exits stage right

Jason Richwine, the co-author of the Heritage Foundation’s condemnation of immigration reform, ran into a little trouble this week when the public learned that he’s argued, for several years, that white people are more intelligent than people of color. It didn’t help when reports showed he contributed published pieces to a white nationalist website.

And as of this afternoon, he’s decided to spend more time with his family’s IQ scores, having resigned from the conservative think tank. The Heritage Foundation gave this explanation to Dave Weigel:

“Jason Richwine let us know he’s decided to resign from his position. He’s no longer employed by Heritage.

The move doesn’t come as too big a surprise under the circumstances, and one assumes Heritage will now be free to condemn Richwine’s eugenics-like beliefs with more enthusiasm.

But the damage to the group’s agenda and reputation has already been done. Heritage will be eager to tell the world Richwine is no longer on its payroll, but Heritage will nevertheless still be touting the anti-immigration-reform report that Richwine co-authored, and the racist label will prove hard to shake.

The irony is, Heritage produced this report for exactly one reason: to provide some semblance of political cover to Republicans who needed a credible excuse to reject a bipartisan reform plan. The goal was to help the GOP and the far-right cause. The extent to which this backfired is extraordinary.